Southern California -- this just in

Suspicious man seen running from park where Sacramento girl slain

March 16, 2012 | 9:12
am

Sacramento County sheriff's officials said they have retraced the last hours of a 13-year-old girl's life – before she was found dead last week near a softball dugout – and they now believe she met someone she knew.

Investigators say that after Jessica Funk-Haslam got in an argument with her mother and left her home, she boarded a nearby light rail train, then transferred to a bus. She got off near Rosemont Community Park and spent time with someone she knew.

"I think she was there for some period of time with somebody she knew and was comfortable with," said detective Tony Turnbull of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.

Police have released surveillance video from a neighbor near the park showing a suspicious man running away from the park along Rosemont Drive toward Mayhew Road about the time Jessica was killed. It showed him ducking down a side street when a car approached.

Authorities say homeowners next to the park heard screams in the park between 8 and 9 p.m. and then a male voice.

"A very short duration scream of two to three seconds and was unlike any other playful scream," Turnbull said.

The 13-year-old girl had trauma to her head, a stab wound to her neck, and had been asphyxiated. She was found dead March 5.